As many would have feared, the Narendra Modi-led Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government in India has started its moral policing. The Union Health Minister Mr Harsh Vardhan has asked the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to slow down on promotion of condoms but push culture instead to curtail the infection from spreading.
The diktat is matter of concern! Two issues relating to the order should be paid attention to.
One: As the NACO too has understood and clarified that commercial sex workers (CSW) and men having sex with men (MSM) cannot be taken under the purview of the order as "morals won't catch their attention" - which means by promoting cultural values, we are conveying a message that it is an immoral and illegal act when CSWs indulge in sex with their clients or when MSMs follow their sexual preference.
The other aspect of this point is that sex is a totally personal issue. Just like a person cannot be compelled to like a certain food or follow any particular religion as both are personal choices of a man or woman, similarly sex is a personal choice and an adult man or woman should be free to decide his or her preference for a partner.
The cultural values what parents pass on to their children decide if that child on growing up will have multiple partners or have sex with other than his or her own partner. Preaching a grown up man or woman with this moral will hardly make a difference. So, what is required at the moment is to inculcate high morals in our children, rather than taming the adults.
Two: Second part of the issue is the existing pattern of advertising for condoms. Most of the advertisements on television these days present condom as a mean to enhance the sexual pleasures. Nowhere the advertisement mentions that it protects the couple from catching HIV infection or any reproductive tract infection or sexually transmitted infection (RTI/STI).
These advertisements do not speak about family planning, either. A country with an overflowing population - where no development can be felt due to number of people or where the roads are bursting to the seams due to ever-increasing users, isn't it necessary to promote the use of condom to check the growth of population or for spacing in children to ensure better for the mother?
Whilst doing case studies on HIV/AIDS, I have met many men, especially truckers or migrating population, whose testimonies emphasised on the importance of condom for checking the spread of HIV/AIDS and RTI/STI, and also curbing the unwanted pregnancies.
It would have been a laudable initiative had the Union Health Minister asked the advertisers to change their style and focus more on health and population with the use of condom than on adding to carnal pleasures!
The diktat is matter of concern! Two issues relating to the order should be paid attention to.
One: As the NACO too has understood and clarified that commercial sex workers (CSW) and men having sex with men (MSM) cannot be taken under the purview of the order as "morals won't catch their attention" - which means by promoting cultural values, we are conveying a message that it is an immoral and illegal act when CSWs indulge in sex with their clients or when MSMs follow their sexual preference.
The other aspect of this point is that sex is a totally personal issue. Just like a person cannot be compelled to like a certain food or follow any particular religion as both are personal choices of a man or woman, similarly sex is a personal choice and an adult man or woman should be free to decide his or her preference for a partner.
The cultural values what parents pass on to their children decide if that child on growing up will have multiple partners or have sex with other than his or her own partner. Preaching a grown up man or woman with this moral will hardly make a difference. So, what is required at the moment is to inculcate high morals in our children, rather than taming the adults.
Two: Second part of the issue is the existing pattern of advertising for condoms. Most of the advertisements on television these days present condom as a mean to enhance the sexual pleasures. Nowhere the advertisement mentions that it protects the couple from catching HIV infection or any reproductive tract infection or sexually transmitted infection (RTI/STI).
These advertisements do not speak about family planning, either. A country with an overflowing population - where no development can be felt due to number of people or where the roads are bursting to the seams due to ever-increasing users, isn't it necessary to promote the use of condom to check the growth of population or for spacing in children to ensure better for the mother?
Whilst doing case studies on HIV/AIDS, I have met many men, especially truckers or migrating population, whose testimonies emphasised on the importance of condom for checking the spread of HIV/AIDS and RTI/STI, and also curbing the unwanted pregnancies.
It would have been a laudable initiative had the Union Health Minister asked the advertisers to change their style and focus more on health and population with the use of condom than on adding to carnal pleasures!
2 comments:
Oh how wonderfully you have analyzed and put the point of view....
So true, condom ads aims at aiming enhancement of plzr rather than anything restrictive.....
most wonderful piece on HIV/AIDS and condome'd issue .......
Thank you Lalita...
I wish someone there formulating policies pays a bit of attention!
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